If someone came up to you in the street and said they were your friend, yet you had no recollection of them – what would you do. Of course in real life, most of us would blag our way through the situation and then try and remember – “who the f*ck was I talking too!

But it doesn’t work like that on Facebook – send most people a friend request and you’ll likely get a confirmation. Among the young I have discovered there’s some serious street cred in having 2000 friends on your account. Personally I’ve been on this planet for nearly 50 years and have never got anywhere near having 2000 friends!!

But Facebook does have some seriously funny pictures –

There is a serious issue here though, young people are very at ease with the internet. They think nothing of sharing personal details and ’status updates’ online. All this is accessible to the ’facebook friend’ even if that person is someone you’ve never met or spoken to in your life. Our details fly across the internet, what we do, where we are and what we are interested in – are subjects we share in real life with our real friends. But on Facebook you can share this stuff with thousands, all across the globe and what’s more it will all be recorded for posterity.

Imagine posting that drunken picture of you at a certain party making a fool of yourself. It gives a laugh to your friends, but how would it look being viewed by a potential employer in 20 years later. It’s even more important for the young to keep hold of their online persona, to be careful about what they upload and show caution and try online surf protection when they can.

One of the most rapidly growing sectors in the US is firms managing or repairing your online identity. Think first, then sleep on it and then post that update to Facebook or Twitter – you’ll inevitably think better of it.